Near the Jugular

First Reformed

Paul Schrader’s latest film focuses on a pastor and his crisis of faith.

USA 2017
Dir Paul Schrader
With Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Kyles
113min
Digital
Certificate 15

Arguably Schrader’s most Bressonian film, this centres on a pastor at a Dutch Reformed church in upstate New York: falling attendances, commercial compromise, his own private problems and those of his congregation combine to provoke a crisis of faith.

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